Tennessee

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NRA Loses In Court In Tennessee

March 27, 2025 by 5 Comments

US District Court Judge William Campbell, Jr., issued an order today denying the NRA’s motions to dismiss the case brought against it by David Dell’Aquila and others. The case, Dell’Aquila et al v. National Rifle Association, is being heard in the Middle District of Tennessee was originally filed in August 2019. The case originally also included Wayne LaPierre and the NRA Foundation as defendants but they were dropped from the case in 2020. This case has had numerous delays due to the NRA’s abortive filing for bankruptcy, changes of attorneys, and numerous extensions of time. It was revived in August 2022 when Dell’Aquila engaged the Chicago firm of Loevy & Loevy and the Nashville office of Stites & Harbison.

As I reported earlier this month, William Brewer and Brewer, Attorneys and Counselors, withdrew from the case as of March 5th and were replaced with the Nashville firm of Neal and Harwell PLC. However, it should be noted that all the motions filed on behalf of the NRA that were denied today came from the Brewer firm.

The NRA had moved to dismiss the Third Amended Complaint which had been filed in June 2024. They had also moved for oral argument and for a stay on discovery pending the outcome of their motion to dismiss. As noted above, Judge Campbell denied the motion to dismiss. He also denied the motion for oral argument on the motion to dismiss and said the motion to stay discovery was now moot.

The Third Amended Complaint accused the NRA of the following and the NRA had moved to dismiss all allegations.

In the Third Amended Complaint, Plaintiffs bring claims against the NRA for fraud, breach of contract, tortious interference with contract, violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), 18 U.S.C. § 1961, et seq., and RICO conspiracy. The NRA seeks to dismiss all claims under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6).

Judge Campbell noted that the standard for review of a motion to dismiss is that a court must take all factual allegations as true. He found that Dell’Aquila had sufficiently alleged the facts for fraud. The amended complaint had added the claims of breach of contract and tortious interference. He found there was sufficient factual allegations made earlier in the case to support the relation back of amendments. The NRA had contended they were not on notice to argue breach of contract or tortious interference because Dell’Aquila didn’t say earlier there was a contract with the NRA or the NRA Foundation.

Plaintiffs argue they have adequately alleged a claim for breach of contract. Plaintiffs point to allegations that the NRA mails a dues renewal notification to all members that includes a “Uniform Disclosure Statement” which states that “Contributions raised will be used to advance the mission of the NRA.”The NRA also solicits donations through its website, which contains the same statement. Plaintiffs contend this statement sets forth a contractual promise to use donated funds to advance the mission of the NRA, that Plaintiffs and other donors accepted this offer by sending donations, and that the NRA breached the promise by using the solicited funds for purposes not in furtherance of the NRA’s mission….

Plaintiffs have plausibly alleged a claim for breach of contract based on the NRA’s
solicitation of donations with the express promise that any donations would be used to further its
mission and its use of donated funds for purposes unrelated to that mission.

We have heard in the past that significant loans were made by the NRA Foundation to the NRA itself. We also heard in the New York case how significant personal expenditures were disguised through the use of credit cards issued by Ackerman McQueen. This has come back to bite the NRA and has allowed Dell’Aquila’s claim of tortious interference to stand.

Finally, there are the charges of RICO and RICO conspiracy.

As discussed above, Plaintiffs have sufficiently alleged a RICO claim. With regard to
Defendant’s second argument, Plaintiffs point to allegations that the NRA “agree[d] to participate
in the conduct of the affairs of the NRA Foundation enterprise through a pattern of racketeering
activity,” specifically, that NRA had a “decades-long arrangement pursuant to which the NRA
solicited funds through the [NRA Foundation] under false pretenses, transferred those funds to the
NRA, and laundered them through Ackerman [McQueen] to support Mr. LaPierre’s extravagance.” For purposes of the motion to dismiss, these allegations are sufficient to plausibly allege that the NRA “objectively manifested an agreement to participate” in the RICO enterprise.

It should be pointed out that none of Dell’Aquila’s charges have been proven but there is enough there that the case goes on. More importantly, Dell’Aquila and his fellow plaintiffs will be allowed to engage in discovery which, to be honest, could prove very embarrassing to the NRA. While Wayne is gone as is Tyler Schropp and Doug Hamlin has started to clean house at the NRA, the NRA Foundation is still dominated by the old guard. They were put in place to do Wayne’s bidding including the sweetheart loans between the NRA and the NRA Foundation. These loans were sufficiently problematic that the Attorney General of the District of Columbia brought suit and the Foundation eventually entered into a consent decree.

Judge Campbell’s memorandum is embedded below:

Dell’Aquila v NRA opinionDownload
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Tennesseans: Remove Dangerous People, Not Guns

June 9, 2023 by 1 Comment

After the murders at The Covenant School in Nashville, some politicians as well as the gun control industry have been calling for the state of Tennessee to enact a “red flag law”. Indeed, Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN) is threatening a special session of the Tennessee legislature to enact a “red flag law” that he insists is not that.

From Lee’s press secretary to the Daily Wire:

“To be clear, the Governor does not support red flag laws. His proposal is different from any law across the country – it would strengthen Tennessee’s existing law around the order of protection process for cases of domestic violence and enhance support for law enforcement, ensure due process, require the highest burden of proof, and boost mental health support,” said Press Secretary Jade Byers. 

But what do the majority of Tennesseans want?

According to a recent poll by co/efficient done in conjunction with the Daily Wire, 84% of respondents said it was more important to remove the dangerous person than to remove the guns. In my opinion, this is a recognition that those individuals who are a danger to themselves or others will use other means – knives, cars, gasoline, etc. – if firearms are not available and they are allowed to remain at large.

From co/efficent polling:

In the poll, Tennessee voters dramatically retreat from their soft support of proposed Red Flag Laws and do not see this as the solution to their safety concerns when informed that Red Flag Laws merely take guns away from dangerous individuals but do nothing to prevent them from causing harm by some other means. Red Flag Law support erodes even further when informed that there are existing laws to take threatening individuals out of the community right now. Tennesseans largely support recently passed legislation that puts police officers in schools and believe enforcing the current laws on the books is an effective solution to keeping their families, communities, and state safe.

People are not stupid. They recognize when their emotions are being played by politicians, the media, and the gun control industry. Once they have a good grasp of the situation, they usually come to a reasonable conclusion.

H/T Amanda

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A College Minor In Changemaking?

October 1, 2021 by 1 Comment

With Smith & Wesson moving a lot of their operations to Tennessee, I was checking to see what colleges and universities in the area offered that might be useful to that company. I was particularly interested in engineering and STEM programs.

Along the way I stumbled across a school that had a minor in “Changemaking”. I thought that it was good that this school was offering a practical minor for those students who had majored in fields with less than optimal job prospects. You know, the majors where graduates will be asking “do you want fries with that?” Now, at least, they would be equipped with the skills to handle a cash register and make correct change.

Unfortunately, it seems more about community organizing and “positive social change”.

The Changemaking minor equips students with the mindset, knowledge, and skills to effect positive social change in their communities. Grounded in theories and methodologies of social innovation and social entrepreneurship, the minor affords students opportunities to study, develop, and implement regional social change projects in collaboration with partners in education, government, industry, and nonprofit sectors.

I am not going to name the university lest it embarrass my good friend David Cole. I do expect that school to kick one of my alma maters in football when they meet in November.

I will note the school does have a good number of engineering technology programs including in fields like product development, industrial engineering technology, and mechanical engineering technology. It also has the full range of business majors. Thus, not all is lost.

I think the move of Smith & Wesson to east Tennessee is a great win for that state and their industrial recruiters should be congratulated.

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Every Picture Tells A Story, Part XII

April 9, 2021 by 2 Comments

And now for some good news!

Yesterday, Gov. Bill Lee (R-TN) signed SB 0765 which provides for permitless carry of handguns in Tennessee for all legal adults over the age of 21 and for members of the military ages 18 to 20. This makes the Volunteer State the 20th state to adopt constitutional or permitless carry. It should be emphasized that this only applies to handguns and not to long guns. The law goes into effect on July 1st.

There is one change made in this version of Every Picture Tells A Story over the previous editions. One of the criticisms of the earlier versions is that they went by what the law said and not what was actually happening on the ground. Thus, in the past, we counted Hawaii as “may issue” as the law specified as opposed to “no issue” which they are in fact. As of today, no private citizen has been issued a concealed carry permit in the state of Hawaii which is, in itself, shameful.

Rob Vance calculated the percentage of the US population that lives under each carry regime.

  • No Issue (HI) — 0.4%
  • May Issue (CA,DC,MD,MA,NJ,NY,RI) — 27.0%
  • Shall Issue — 55.7%
  • Permitless — 16.9%

While the state of Indiana punted on constitutional carry, it appears that bills are advancing in both Louisiana and South Carolina to adopt some form of permitless carry. What happened in Indiana is similar to what happened in North Carolina a few years ago. Top Republicans in the State Senate decided not to go forward with it after the State House had passed the measure. In North Carolina, Sen. Majority Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) was fearful of losing his super-majority. He lost it anyway.

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The Green Wall Between NC And Tennessee

July 26, 2018 by 5 Comments

I had to meet with a couple of clients today in the Tri-Cities area of Tennessee and Virginia. Driving up Interstate 26 and crossing into Tennessee at Sams Gap (Elevation 3,760) it struck me that the border between Tennessee and North Carolina is essentially a green wall of mountains from the south to the north. You can see some of the ridges of my drive on this webpage and in the picture below.

In TN looking NW towards Johnson City

When I cross the state line on Interstate 40 from Haywood County, NC to Cocke County, TN, I have to drive through the Pigeon River gorge. Again, it is a green wall.

It is no wonder that the Appalachian Trail runs along the state line for about 200 miles.

The roughness of the borderlands between the two states got me to thinking about how determined and hardy the first white settlers who crossed from NC to TN must have been. It is no wonder that the state of Tennessee (or the State of Franklin) was settled first by Virginians and not by North Carolinians.

The first settlement in Tennessee; that is, the North Holston settlement in the present county of Sullivan, and the South Holston settlement, on the Watauga, in the present county of Washington, were effected between the treaty of Hard Labor in 1768, and the experimental survey of the Virginia-North Carolina line in 1771, while all the territory so settled was still believed to be a part of Virginia. There are geographical reasons sufficient to explain why the founders of these settlements should have come, in the main, from Virginia rather than from North Carolina. In the first place, the Blue Ridge that separates Virginia from Tennessee numbers among its range of towering hills Mt. Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Rocky Mountains, and was at that time almost impassable.a Even as experienced and able woodsman as James Robertson, when crossing the range in 1770, was lost in the trackless mountains and wandered, without food, for fourteen days; and finally owed his extrication to his good fortune in meeting up with some hunters, who relieved his distress and enabled him to reach his home in safety. On the other hand, the Appalachian Valley was an easy and natural route from Pennsylvania and Virginia to the Southwest. When the watershed changed from the Alleghany Mountains to the Blue Ridge, it left the valley open, like the mouth of a funnel, to empty the population from the eastern watershed in Virginia to the western watershed in North Carolina; whose north line had not yet been located and was still unknown.

Until I read this, I didn’t realize that the westward migration into Tennessee actually was more of southwestward migration and not due west from the coastal plains and Piedmont sections of North Carolina. Nonetheless, those early settlers of the Volunteer State, whether from Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, or North Carolina were hardy men and women and I salute them.

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Campus Carry For F-T Employees In TN Goes Live July 1

June 23, 2016 by

When the Tennessee legislature voted earlier this year to allow campus carry on state university campuses, they limited it to full-time employees of the schools. Moreover, in an effort to appease the governor and university administrators, they put the liability for accidental/negligent discharges on the employee.

Liston Matthews, the Knox Gun Guy and a retired college instructor himself, has done yeoman’s work in getting details from the UT Police Department on what’s required and the necessary forms.

Desiring to get the straight facts, I emailed Lt. Mike Richardson of the University of Tennessee Police Department. I also wanted the form that UT employees must complete in order to comply:


June 17, 2016
Subject: Notification form for faculty/staff handgun carry
Dear Lt. Richardson:


I am working on an article for my blog knoxgunguy.com, about the new law effective July 1. I know that they are required to notify UTPD in writing of their intent to carry.


Is there a specified format?
Is specific information required?
Is there a form they are required to complete?
Are they required to register their handgun with UTPD, or only supply information about themselves?


Thank you for your help?


Lt. Richardson replied with inline answers:


Jun 17 (4 days ago)


Is there a specified format?
There is a registration form that must be completed at UTPD and witnessed by a commissioned officer.


Is specific information required?
The information is specific to the employee.


Is there a form they are required to complete?
See first question and response.


Are they required to register their handgun with UTPD, or only supply information about themselves?
The full-time faculty/staff must only register themselves and their permit number, not the handgun itself.
You can also visit our department website, which should answer any other questions you may have.


Lt. Mike Richardson

Notice that Lt. Richardson (no relation) mentioned the form required to be completed. However, he did not send a copy with his responses. It took a bit of back and forth before Liston was able to get that form. Perhaps it was the mention of his attorney that shook it loose. You can see the form here.

Nashville’s The Tennesseean has a long story on both the bill and the reaction around Tennessee campuses to the coming change. For a large newspaper it was both fairly accurate and fairly evenhanded. I recommend reading it.

Thanks to Liston for his work in prying loose the form and answers from the UTPD.

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The Devil Is In The Details

August 7, 2015 by 5 Comments

Yesterday, I reported that Maj. Gen. Max Haston, the Adjutant General of the Tennessee National Guard, had authorized the carry of firearms by Guardsmen and Air Guardsmen while on duty. That, on the face of it, was and is a great leap forward in protecting the men and women of the Tennessee Guard from terrorists of all stripes.

However, as they say, the devil is in the details. Thanks to a Tennessee blogger who wishes to remain anonymous so as to protect his source I have those details. The key points as he summarized them are:

Here are some of the restrictions:
  • The carried weapon must “meet identical or nearly identical specifications of the M9 Beretta service pistol or smaller”, and the local Commander gets to decide what that means. No revolvers or derringers.
  • .380, 9mm, .40, and .45 only
  • It must be carried in a holster that is “identical or nearly identical to the service-issued holster” worn on either the right or left hip. 
  • While not explicitly stated, it appears that open carry is not allowed.
  • You may only have one.
  • No carry in Government Vehicles or Storefront Recruiting Stations. This basically means that Recruiters–the ones being targeted–are effectively not allowed to carry.
  • You may only carry in ACUs or Class A uniforms. 
    • Class A uniform carry is only allowed if you don’t print and won’t be required or expected to remove the jacket later. 
    • ACU carry is only allowed if blouse remove is not authorized. So if you’re on kitchen duty, you’re not allowed to carry even if you don’t take off your blouse, because blouse removal is authorized in that scenario. Same thing if it’s more than 85 degrees.
  • You are carrying as authorized by the Handgun Carry Permit statutes. As such, you’re not allowed to carry in schools or businesses that post 1359 signage.
The document you are required to sign before being allowed to carry places these additional restrictions:
  • While not in the actual orders, the paper that the soldier is required to sign requires them to carry with no magazine in the weapon. I have confirmed with my source that this is, indeed, the intention of that language.
  • Only allows carry on “authorized Military Department State properties”, ie, not while in uniform (while out) in the general public.

The key document is the Personally Owned Weapons Policy, ver. 4, which I have embedded below. In addition, here is the link to the document that must be signed and to the announcement sent to members of the Tennessee Military Department (NG and ANG).

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Tennessee’s Adjutant General Gets It – Allows Licensed Carry While On Duty

August 6, 2015 by 4 Comments

Maj. Gen. Max Haston, Tennessee’s Adjutant General, gets it. He issued orders today that will allow members of the Tennessee National Guard and Air National Guard to carry while on duty at State armories and facilities if they have a valid Tennessee carry permit. He also announced the selected Guard personnel working at Federal facilities will draw and carry Federally issued firearms for protection. Finally, he has moved Army National Guard recruiters from storefront locations to local armories.

The relevant parts of the news release:

Maj. Gen. Max Haston, Tennessee’s Adjutant General, today announced that the
Military Department has taken steps to increase the security of its personnel and facilities to
include allowing Tennessee Army & Air National Guard members with valid Tennessee State
Handgun Carry Permits to carry handguns at State Armories and facilities.

Haston’s decision follows Governor Bill Haslam’s directive, issued earlier this month in the
aftermath of the deadly shootings in Chattanooga, to review current Guard personnel who are
authorized to be armed in the performance of their duties, and identify and arm Guardsmen
where necessary to protect themselves, citizens and Guard facilities.

“We have been very deliberate in making the decision to arm our Tennessee National Guard,”
said Haston. “This is not a step that we take lightly, but it is apparent that military personnel
have been targeted and the protection of our Soldiers and Airmen is of utmost importance.
Physical security and risk assessment is something that we continually do as part of our day to
day obligations.”

Haston also announced that selected Guard personnel working on Federal facilities would be
allowed to carry federally issued handguns.

“Federal law prohibits carrying a personally owned weapon on a Federal facility,” said Haston.
“Therefore, selected personnel working on Federal property will draw and carry a federally
issued firearm for protection.”

I would hope to see this spread to more states. In the meantime, kudos to Gen. Haston for taking the necessary steps to protect the men and women under his command.

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Beretta’s Jeff Reh On Why They Chose Tennessee

January 30, 2014 by

Jeff Reh is the general counsel and vice-GM of Beretta USA as well as a member of their Board of Directors. In addition, he is the President of their Stoeger subsidiary. In the speech below, he explains why Beretta chose Gallatin, Tennesse as the location for their expansion.

Beretta probably would have expanded at or near their Accokeek, Maryland plant if that state hadn’t passed their onerous gun control laws in May 2013. Gov. Martin O’Malley and the gun prohibitionists in the Maryland legislature cost that state at least 300 jobs by passing the new gun control law. Moreover, I would not be surprised to see that more and more of the operations in Maryland will be transferred to Tennessee as time goes by.

As Reh notes in his speech, they only looked at states that had a consistent and strong support for the Second Amendment. While many in West Virginia are strong supporters of the Second Amendment, many of their politicians are lax in their support. It was specifically due to Joe Manchin and his push for gun control that West Virginia was crossed off the list of potential expansion locations.

The transcript of Jeff Reh’s speech:

“The Beretta family has manufactured products and done business from the same town in northern Italy for almost 500 years. This means that when Beretta chooses a location for its business, we plan not just in terms of a return on investment within the next few years. We also start with the possibility that we will be in that location for decades, if not hundreds of years, to come.

Around March 2013 the Beretta family decided to expand its manufacturing and business operations outside Maryland, where Beretta U.S.A. is located. We started our search by looking only at States that have a consistent history of support for and likelihood of future support for Second Amendment rights.

We then reduced this list of States further by looking at traditional business-related factors such as tax rates, cost of living, cost of doing business, availability of white and blue collar workers, traditions of high-level manufacturing in the area, the quality of local educational institutions, availability of job recruitment, screening and training, and so forth.

From that analysis we reduced our list of States to seven. Working through the Governor’s Office in each of those states, we came up with a list of 80 sites within those seven States that we then visited over the past five months. Based on those visits we narrowed the list of 80 sites down to six. Then we made second and third visits to those locations and reduced that list to three.

We scored each of those three locations using 20 evaluation criteria and, based on those evaluations, we unanimously chose Gallatin, Tennessee as the best of all the candidate locations we saw. Our choice was then confirmed through a personal visit by Mr. Ugo Gussalli Beretta, Franco’s father, to Gallatin on December 30, 2013.

I can say, based on this very rigorous search methodology, that not only was Tennessee the best State we found within which to locate our business, but also that Gallatin provided the best location for us within Tennessee. We thus move forward with confidence knowing that Tennessee is a great place to do business. We look forward to our opportunities here and we look forward to working side-by-side with our new Tennessee neighbors.”

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Take That, You Red Staters!

October 15, 2013 by 2 Comments

Thanks to the continued hissy fit by the White House and their Democratic allies in Congress, government shutdown theater will now impact deer hunting in east Tennessee according to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

CROSSVILLE — The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has been informed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Oak Ridge Operations (ORO) that the deer hunts scheduled Oct. 19-20 have been cancelled at the Oak Ridge Wildlife Management Area.

The cancellation comes as a result of an effort to initiate an orderly shutdown in support of obtaining a safe and secure status. The cancellation, at this time, applies to the Oct. 19-20 hunts. A decision on the other hunts, scheduled in November and December, 2013, will be made as this information is received.

I guess the Department of Energy was feeling a little left out by all the attention given to the Department of the Interior’s National Park Service and wanted to get into the act as well. There is nothing like having a politicized bureaucracy when you want to stick it to the red-staters!

H/T The Archery Wire